Introduction to Digital Accessibility
Welcome to Accessibility 101, your go-to resource for understanding the fundamentals of digital accessibility. This page introduces digital accessibility, key definitions, and the basics you need to know to create inclusive digital experiences.
Digital Accessibilty Basics Heading link
What is Digital Accessibility?
Digital accessibility refers to designing and developing digital content, websites, applications, and technology in a way that ensures people with disabilities can perceive, navigate, interact with, and contribute to them. It involves making digital resources usable for individuals with a range of disabilities, including visual, auditory, motor, and cognitive impairments.
Why is Digital Accessibility important?
Digital accessibility is essential for creating an inclusive campus where everyone can participate fully in academic and social activities. By making our digital content accessible, we ensure that all users, regardless of their abilities, can access and engage with our resources. This not only complies with legal requirements but also reflects our values of diversity, equity, and inclusion.
What are the benefits of digital accessibility?
Accessible content is not only beneficial for people with disabilities but also for all users, including those with temporary impairments or situational limitation.
Digital accessibility has many other benefits including improved user experience, increased audience reach, and enhanced brand reputation.
Introduction to Digital Accessibility by Deque University (3min) Heading link
Inclusive Language Heading link
What is inclusive language?
Inclusive language refers to using words and phrases that intentionally avoid excluding certain groups of people based on factors like gender, race, ethnicity, disability, or sexual orientation, aiming to treat everyone with respect and dignity by acknowledging diversity and avoiding stereotypes; essentially, it’s about actively choosing language that makes everyone feel welcomed and included.
What are examples of inclusive language ?
Use Gender-Neutral Terms:
Replace gender-specific terms with neutral ones. For example, use “chairperson” instead of “chairman” and “sales professional” instead of “salesman”
Respect Pronouns:
Always use the pronouns that individuals prefer. If possible, ask them which pronouns to use. Consider adding your preferred pronouns to your email signature or screen name to make this task easier for others
Avoid Ableist Language:
Refrain from using terms like “crazy” or “lame.” Instead, choose respectful alternatives like “unpredictable” or “uninspiring”. Learn the correct terms for different disabilities and use them.
Be Mindful of Word Choices:
The history and connotations of a term matter. Use terms like “allowlist” instead of “whitelist” and “blocklist” instead of “blacklist.”
Digital Accessibility Basics Heading link
Select a tab to learn more about accessibility topics.
What are the common digital accessibilty terms and definitions I should be aware of?
- Accessible: A person with a disability is afforded the opportunity to acquire the same information, engage in the same interactions, and enjoy the same services as a person without a disability in an equally effective and equally integrated manner, with substantially equivalent ease of use.
- Accessibility Remediation: The part of the project where you make things accessible. This involves identifying and eliminating accessibility barriers for people with disabilities.
- Alternative Text (Alt Text): Descriptions embedded into images that help screen readers read the text aloud for blind users.
- Audio Browsers: Special web browsers used by visually impaired people that turn text into speech, acting as a screen reader.
- Braille Device: Assistive technology that helps the visually impaired read by raising bumps on a surface.
- Captioning: Captions are a transcription of the spoken dialogue and other relevant audio information in a video, such as sound effects, speaker identification, and other non-verbal audio cues. There are two types of captions: open captions, which are always visible and cannot be turned off, and closed captions, which can be turned on or off by the viewer. Captions should not be confused with Subtitles.
- Electronic and Information Technology (EIT): Refers to any computer hardware and software, operating systems, web-based information and applications, telecommunications products, kiosks, and video equipment and multimedia products that are used to access, create, convert, disseminate, or duplicate data or information.
- IT Accessibility: The ongoing process by which an organization ensures its current and future IT can be used effectively by everyone, including individuals with disabilities.
- Screen Reader: Software that reads the text displayed on the screen aloud, used by individuals who are blind or have low vision.
- Subtitles: Subtitles are intended to provide a translation of the spoken dialogue for viewers who do not understand the language being spoken in the video. Subtitles assume that the viewer can hear the audio but needs a translation to understand the conten
- Web Accessibility: Web accessibility means that websites, tools, and technologies are designed and developed so that people with disabilities can use them. More specifically, people can: perceive, understand, navigate, and interact, and contribute to the Web
- WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines): A set of guidelines developed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) to make web content more accessible to people with disabilities.
What is ADA Title II?
What is ADA Title II?
What is UIC's Digital Accessibility Policy?
What is UIC’s Digital Accessibility Policy?
What is inclusive language?
Inclusive language refers to using words and phrases that intentionally avoid excluding certain groups of people based on factors like gender, race, ethnicity, disability, or sexual orientation, aiming to treat everyone with respect and dignity by acknowledging diversity and avoiding stereotypes; essentially, it’s about actively choosing language that makes everyone feel welcomed and included.
What are examples of inclusive language ?
Use Gender-Neutral Terms:
Replace gender-specific terms with neutral ones. For example, use “chairperson” instead of “chairman” and “sales professional” instead of “salesman”
Respect Pronouns:
Always use the pronouns that individuals prefer. If possible, ask them which pronouns to use. Consider adding your preferred pronouns to your email signature or screen name to make this task easier for others
Avoid Ableist Language:
Refrain from using terms like “crazy” or “lame.” Instead, choose respectful alternatives like “unpredictable” or “uninspiring”. Learn the correct terms for different disabilities and use them.
Be Mindful of Word Choices:
The history and connotations of a term matter. Use terms like “allowlist” instead of “whitelist” and “blocklist” instead of “blacklist.”
Frequently Asked Questions Heading link
Accessibility versus Accommodation
Most faculty are familiar with the accommodation process facilitated by the Disability Resource Center (DRC) and may wonder why meeting reasonable accommodations for students with documented disabilities is not sufficient.
Accommodations are based on the needs of individual students who have registered a disability with the DRC. Accommodations are for adaptations that can’t be anticipated or standardized. They are unique to each student and may include testing, ASL/CART, assistive technology, mobility, attendance flexibility etc.
Whereas, Accessibility is what we should expect to be ready for us without asking or planning ahead. Everyone can benefit from accessibility, without having to announce or explain why they need it.
Increasing a course’s overall accessibility helps a broader range of students:
- Students with undiagnosed disabilities.
- Students who are apprehensive to share their disability with professors.
- Students who commute, parent, or work and benefit from consuming course content in alternate formats.
- All students have unique learning styles.
DRC Accommodations
Academic accommodations will still be very important for full student access, and the DRC is still available to support students and staff in implementing accommodations.
DRC Basics for Instructors (link to guide)
DRC Guide to Accommodations (link to site with explanations of common accommodations)
Our 2026 goal is about digital accessibility, which is about creating a universally inclusive learning environment that reduces the need for individual accommodation. By embracing accessibility guidelines, you:
- Create a single set of universally accessible materials, streamlining course delivery and reducing the need for individual student accommodations.
- Improve document and file compatibility with evolving technologies, increasing the longevity of your course materials.
- Create a more equitable learning experience for all students.
This proactive approach shifts from reactive accommodations to inclusive design. It allows all students, regardless of abilities, to engage with your content with fewer barriers. Meeting accessibility guidelines does more than ensure compliance—it enhances learning for everyone and promotes a culture of inclusion at UIC.